Tuesday at 2:00pm with Russ

It's Tuesday at 2:00pm! (PST Time: I live and work from Southern California)

Greetings to you!

Each week I send out a short leadership blog that's called "Tuesday at 2:00pm". The purpose of this is simply to provide a brief thought on leadership that you can read and think about in just a few minutes. I send it out every week at 2:00pm (PST) and encourage you to make an appointment with yourself to pause and think about the thing I'm writing about.

Russ...

LEADERSHIP QUOTE:

"I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples." Mother Teresa

What does this stir up? Either write me HERE or comment at the end of the blog post HERE.

A LITTLE BIT DEEPER:

We're going to explore this word INFLUENCE over the next number of weeks. I'm hosting a Global Leadership Summit in Georgia in March with Leader Mundial, and the theme this year is The Influence of a Leader. While we have a number of topics, books and presentations to address this, I wanted to simply look at some quotes that explore this more.

This quote from Mother Teresa is a powerful reminder of the importance of INFLUENCE. We've been exploring this topic over the past couple of weeks and you can see the previous posts HERE.

When I reflect on the work and life of Mother Teresa, a word that just comes up over and over again is that she CONSISTENTLY served others over her 87 years of life, and her impact and influence is impossible to measure.

The idea of a "Ripple Effect" simply reminds us that sometimes our influence continues to spread and expand, even after we're gone.

This past weekend, Gina and I attended the funeral of our good friend, Ellis. Ellis and his wife Frankie were friends of ours for over 25 years. We were introduced to them when we stopped in to visit the church Ellis was pastoring, and one simple conversation led to a long-term relationship, and we have been deeply impacted by their lives and their love.

As we sat in the Celebration of Life service the other day, I was overwhelmed by the number of people in the room who's only connection was Ellis. There was evidence of his "ripple" in all of our lives, but in many different ways. He consistently influenced people from all walks of life, in different ways, from all over the world, and he did this for years and years.

What a celebration of life!

What is your "Ripple Effect"? How does your influence continue to spread and impact people, even when they are far away from you?


DEEPER STILL:

I began to share 6 ways to influence people, then got distracted. Let's get back to that.

#1) BE TRUE TO WHO YOU ARE

#2) MODEL INFLUENCE, DON'T FORCE IT

#3) BUILD TRUST BEFORE TRYING TO CHANGE ANYTHING

Influence follows trust.

Here's a simple "Ellis Story", and I have a lot of them.

Ellis came to visit us in Ecuador with a couple of people. He wanted to check us out in person, and we wanted to get to know him. He didn't promise anything, he didn't ask for anything, he just wanted to build relationship.

I saw him do this over and over throughout the years. He and I would travel to the Philippines, and while I was speaking and training, Ellis would begin sitting alone on a bench, then he had someone sitting next to him, and he would just talk, listen, ask questions, and soon there was a line of people who wanted to get some time with him. He did that in South Africa, in Malawi, in Indonesia, in Ecuador and in Nepal. He was consistent.

Ellis built trust first. No empty promises. No flashy presentations. He was simply himself and he humbly embraced each and every person that he came into contact with.

Many of us think that our most significant influence comes when we're speaking to the masses or when we're standing in front of the most talented people.

Influence can be surprising! You can make ripples everywhere and those ripples continue long after you're gone!

Build Trust First, then watch your influence multiply!

 

Things I'm Reading, Listening To and Watching This Week:

Source: www.leadermundial.org